Warconomy
Operator

Operator backlog

A repo-grounded, classified backlog: what Claude can do autonomously now, what can be scaffolded now and finished with a manual value later, what could be safely automated later, what needs the maintainer, and what should not be built yet. No numeric values are stored here.

A grounded view of what is left to do, classified by who can do it and whether it needs a manual value. 7 items can be done autonomously now (no manual values, accounts, or settings); the source-gated and decision rows are derived from the live workbench and data-needs so the list can't drift. Nothing here stores a numeric value — it is a worklist, not data.

  • A — Claude can do now · B — scaffold now, value later · C — safe automation later · D — needs you · E — don't build yet.
  • 6 items would reduce your future manual work.
  • Source-gated (B) and decision (D) rows come straight from the operator workbench, future-evaluations, and data-needs.
  • Machine-readable at /operator/backlog/data.json.

At a glance

KnownA · 7

Claude can do now (no manual input)

StaleB · 8

Scaffold now, manual value later

StaleC · 4

Safe automation later (availability only, no auto-promote)

StaleD · 5

Requires the maintainer

BlockedE · 2

Do not do yet

A — Claude can do now (no manual input) 7

Source-packet completeness checker (static) now low effort high impactscaffoldedcuts manual work

  • Why: Before a maintainer-supplied value is promoted, a pure function can confirm the packet has every required field (official URL, publisher, value, unit, period/asOf, where found, caveat, confidence) — catching an incomplete packet before any dataset edit.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: Use validatePacket() (added this session) when a packet arrives; it lists missing fields and never promotes anything itself.
  • Blockers: None — pure validation, no runtime, no promotion.
  • Validation: Unit test over complete/incomplete packet fixtures.
  • Related: /operator/source-packets · /methodology/promote-data-need

Operator / data-needs consistency audit now low effort medium impactscaffoldedcuts manual work

  • Why: Every workbench item should have a next action, a source packet, and (if blocked) a stated reason; every future item should be clearly 'not implemented'. A test keeps these invariants true as items change.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: Maintained by the operator-consistency test (added this session).
  • Blockers: None.
  • Validation: Vitest assertions over workbench + future items.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · /data-needs

No document-level horizontal overflow (mobile) now low effort high impactin-progress

  • Why: The top nav was scrolling the whole page on mobile. The document must never scroll horizontally; only contained scroll areas may.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: Fixed this session (nav is its own scroll container; root clips x-overflow). Guarded by a CSS regression test.
  • Blockers: None.
  • Validation: CSS containment test; manual narrow-viewport smoke checklist.
  • Related: /explore · /operator · /chokepoints/dashboard

Metadata uniqueness & no-overclaim audit next low effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: Major pages should have unique titles/descriptions and avoid overclaiming.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: Done: metadata-audit.test.ts audits 26 important pages (unique titles/descriptions, canonical host, OG/Twitter, no overclaim, caveats) in operator:check.
  • Blockers: None.
  • Validation: metadata-audit + no-overclaim-audit tests.
  • Related: /operator/indexing-readiness/data.json · /methodology/indexing

Accessibility & mobile polish sweep next medium effort high impactscaffolded

  • Why: Accessibility scaffolding and mobile density needed a pass beyond the overflow fix.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: Done: skip-link, :focus-visible, code/URL wrapping, nav tap targets, and collapsible operator cards; guarded by accessibility-qa.test.ts and the route QA matrix.
  • Blockers: None.
  • Validation: accessibility-qa + route-qa tests.
  • Related: /operator/qa · /operator/production-health

Source-health grouping & source-page readability next medium effort high impactscaffolded

  • Why: Source surfaces should be readable for normal visitors, not just maintainers.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: Done: /source-health groups the registry by type and by access/format; each /sources/{id} page shows a source profile (type, access, machine-readable, used-for) with original-source-first guidance. Guarded by source-grouping.test.ts.
  • Blockers: None.
  • Validation: source-grouping test + no-overclaim audit.
  • Related: /source-health · /sources · /operator/source-watch

B — Scaffold now, manual value later 8

CREA May 2026 Russian fossil-fuel export revenue now low effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: The headline Russian fossil-fuel export-revenue figure for May 2026 (EUR per day) and the month-on-month % change.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: When the May 2026 page is published, read the headline figure and send it back; Claude promotes it.
  • Blockers: The May 2026 analysis is not published yet; CREA publishes ~6 weeks in arrears (April 2026 is current). There is no new value to read.
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

EU 21st sanctions package — shadow-fleet vessel count next low effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: The cumulative count of EU-listed shadow-fleet vessels in the next sanctions package, plus +added / -delisted.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: When the next EU package is adopted, read the cumulative vessel total from the press release and send it back.
  • Blockers: No 21st package is published yet; the 20th package (632 vessels, 23 April 2026) is current and was re-verified.
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

FAO Food Price Index — next release after May 2026 next low effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: The next FAO Food Price Index headline and its five sub-indices (cereal, vegetable oil, dairy, meat, sugar).
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: When the next FAO release publishes, copy the headline + sub-indices and send them back.
  • Blockers: May 2026 is the latest published month; the next release is not out yet. The current values were re-verified and stand.
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

Longer SIPRI / NATO defense-spending series next medium effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: Additional or longer-history country-year military-expenditure values, same basis as the existing series.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Read the SIPRI fact-sheet PDF for the wanted country-years, confirm the basis, and send them back.
  • Blockers: Beyond the latest press-release subset, country-year values are in the SIPRI fact-sheet PDF; basis (current vs constant USD) must be matched exactly.
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

Suez / Red Sea official transit metric next medium effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: One official Suez/Red Sea transit metric — transit count, net tonnage, OR revenue (one per observation).
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Download the SCA navigation report PDF, read one transit metric, and send it back with its page/table reference.
  • Blockers: UNCTAD's page returns 403; SCA statistics are downloadable PDFs; container freight indices are paywalled. No directly-readable newer figure was obtainable.
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

World Bank Pink Sheet — wheat / fertilizer / gas next medium effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: Exact benchmark levels for wheat, fertilizer, and natural gas from the World Bank 'Pink Sheet'.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Open the Pink Sheet XLSX, read the wheat/fertilizer/gas cells, and send the values + cell references back.
  • Blockers: Exact USD levels are only in the downloadable XLSX/PDF (binary), not in readable HTML; parsing a binary file is out of scope.
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

Black Sea grain export volumes next high effort medium impactscaffolded

  • Why: An official monthly Ukraine grain-corridor export tonnage to promote the existing sample row to live.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Locate an official monthly corridor-tonnage series in readable form, then send one month's value back.
  • Blockers: No cleanly-transcribable official monthly tonnage in accessible HTML; the BSGI ended in 2023. The sample row was not promoted (no fabrication).
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

OFAC cumulative shadow-fleet vessel count later high effort medium impactblocked

  • Why: A cumulative count of OFAC-designated shadow-fleet vessels (only if officially stated or deterministically derivable).
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Maintainer decision: accept an official cumulative statement, or define a reproducible manual-count rule. Until then, gate stands.
  • Blockers: OFAC publishes per-action designations, not a cumulative shadow-fleet total; deriving one needs parsing the binary SDN list (no scraping).
  • Validation: Packet completeness check, then promotion dry-run + promotion log.
  • Related: /operator · /operator/source-packets · official source ↗

C — Safe automation later (availability only, no auto-promote) 4

Commodity source refresh-currency watch later low effort medium impactscaffoldedcuts manual work

  • Why: Keep the committed FAO/World Bank snapshots from quietly falling behind their official files.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: Done: npm run commodities:check-refresh compares the official files to the committed snapshots (detect-only, never auto-ingests) and is surfaced on /operator/source-watch + the report.
  • Blockers: None — network detect-only, out of default validation, never auto-promotes.
  • Validation: commodity-refresh-currency test + on-demand check.
  • Related: /commodities/history · /operator/source-watch · /operator/automation

World Bank latest-workbook ingestion (data through current month) later low effort medium impactopen

  • Why: The committed Pink Sheet snapshot is the Jan-2025 workbook (data through 2024-12). The World Bank publishes a newer monthly workbook; ingesting the latest one would extend the price-level charts toward the present.
  • Claude can do this without you? Yes
  • Next action: When commodities:check-refresh flags a newer World Bank workbook (or point the ingest at the current monthly URL), run npm run commodities:ingest:worldbank and review before committing. No new source needed.
  • Blockers: The fixed doc URL serves the Jan-2025 file; the current-month workbook may live at a different URL — confirm before re-ingesting.
  • Validation: re-ingest + commodity-history tests (units/dates/magnitudes).
  • Related: /commodities/history · /operator/source-watch

Source-release availability watcher (design only) later medium effort medium impactdeferredcuts manual work

  • Why: A future safe helper could check whether an official source page advertises a NEW release (e.g. a newer month) and surface a 'candidate available' flag — without fetching or promoting any value. Reduces the maintainer's polling burden.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Documented on /operator/automation as a no-runtime design; not implemented (would need a fetch the static rules exclude by default).
  • Blockers: No runtime/scheduled jobs allowed; must never auto-promote. Availability-only.
  • Validation: Design doc + checklist; no implementation.
  • Related: /operator/automation · /methodology/refresh-harness

Official source-URL health checklist (manual/CLI) later low effort low impactdeferredcuts manual work

  • Why: Source URLs can rot. A manual or local-only checklist (no crawling from the site) helps catch dead links before they undermine citations.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Listed on /operator/automation as a manual/CLI checklist; not a runtime crawler.
  • Blockers: No runtime crawling from the deployed site.
  • Validation: Checklist only.
  • Related: /source-health · /operator/automation

D — Requires the maintainer 5

Evaluate live AIS / maritime data integration next medium effort medium impactdeferred

  • Why: Assess whether Warconomy could add a delayed maritime-monitoring layer (vessel density, tanker/LNG transit counts, or official transit/revenue indicators) for the Strait of Hormuz and the Red Sea — or whether clearly-labeled external links are sufficient.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Decide the approach: (a) links-only to authoritative external maps/statistics (the safe default), or (b) evaluate a specific provider against the criteria checklist and record the terms. No ingestion until a provider's terms, cost, reuse rights, and caching policy are confirmed and approved.
  • Blockers: No source/provider has been evaluated against the criteria, and the project rules forbid scraping, paid APIs, runtime services, and scheduled jobs. Live AIS can also be spoofed or switched off by the shadow-fleet vessels of interest, so a derived figure would need heavy caveats. This needs a maintainer decision, not an automatic build.
  • Validation: Decision recorded; no implementation until then.
  • Related: /methodology/maritime-data · /methodology/live-data · /chokepoints/dashboard · /chokepoints/strait-of-hormuz/economic-impact

Evaluate market / freight / oil indicator sources later medium effort medium impactdeferred

  • Why: Assess whether dated, source-reported market indicators (official oil/gas benchmark levels, freight or war-risk insurance indicators, canal transit/revenue figures) could be added as static, re-verifiable values.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: For a specific indicator, confirm an official, accessible, reusable source that states a dated value in readable form; then it can follow the normal source-packet → promotion workflow. Decline or mark links-only otherwise.
  • Blockers: Many such figures are paywalled, licensed, or only in downloadable spreadsheets/PDFs (binary), and none may be scraped or transcribed from a paid feed. Several official levels exist but are not in directly-readable HTML. This needs a source-by-source accessibility and reuse-rights review, not an automatic build.
  • Validation: Decision recorded; no implementation until then.
  • Related: /methodology/live-data · /operator · /commodities/dashboard

Evaluate future product directions (alerts, briefings, data packages) later medium effort medium impactdeferred

  • Why: Keep deferred product ideas — change alerts, periodic briefings, premium dashboards, downloadable data packages, custom watchlists — on the record as backlog only, so they are considered deliberately rather than drifting in.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: A maintainer decision is required before any of this is scoped or built. Until then it stays backlog-only with no implementation, no auth, and no payments.
  • Blockers: All of these would need infrastructure the current rules exclude by default (auth, payments, runtime services, scheduled jobs, or databases) and a deliberate decision to monetize. None is justified or scoped yet, and shipping any would change the static, no-account trust model.
  • Validation: Decision recorded; no implementation until then.
  • Related: /about · /api · /updates

Google Search Console + Bing Webmaster Tools setup now low effort high impactblocked

  • Why: The site is indexing-ready (sitemap, robots, canonical, metadata) but only the owner can verify the domain and request indexing.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Follow the checklist on /methodology/indexing: create a GSC domain property, verify via DNS TXT, submit the sitemap, request indexing for the priority pages; add Bing.
  • Blockers: Requires the maintainer's account + DNS TXT; Claude must not submit anything.
  • Validation: Manual — coverage appears in GSC/Bing over time.
  • Related: /methodology/indexing · /sitemap.xml · /robots.txt

Re-enable App Hosting continuous deployment (ABIU) next low effort high impactblockedcuts manual work

  • Why: ABIU is disabled, so each push needs a manual rollout. Re-enabling it restores push-to-deploy.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: In the Firebase console (App Hosting → backend → settings), or via apphosting:backends:update, re-enable automatic rollouts. This is a deliberate Firebase setting change.
  • Blockers: Firebase setting change — out of scope for Claude under the current rules.
  • Validation: apphosting:backends:list shows ABIU enabled; a push then auto-deploys.
  • Related: /methodology/indexing

E — Do not do yet 2

Live AIS / ship tracking later high effort high impactavoid

  • Why: Out of scope: needs runtime + often paid feeds; AIS can be spoofed. Evaluated, not built.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: See the maritime data evaluation; links-only is the safe default. No implementation.
  • Blockers: No runtime services, no paid APIs, spoofing risk, reuse-rights.
  • Validation: n/a — explicitly not built.
  • Related: /methodology/maritime-data · /methodology/live-data

User accounts, payments, email alerts, compliance product later high effort medium impactavoid

  • Why: Each needs infrastructure the static, no-auth, no-DB rules exclude, and would change the trust model. Kept as a maintainer decision only.
  • Claude can do this without you? No
  • Next action: Tracked as a future product direction; no implementation, no sales claims.
  • Blockers: No auth/DB/runtime/email; deliberate monetization decision required.
  • Validation: n/a — explicitly not built.
  • Related: /operator/automation · /about

Deferred data-needs (context)

Topics deliberately deferred in the dataset (not a worklist) — shown for transparency. See data needs.

  • Gaza and Syria reconstruction cost estimates: Deferred: new-topic work, out of this coverage-depth session's refresh scope.
  • Ukraine RDNA successor assessment: Deferred: the current RDNA4 estimate stands until the next official RDNA edition is published; no superseding assessment to cite yet.

Related

Operator workbench · Automation readiness · Source packets · Data needs · Indexing checklist